A Conversation with Joshua Epstein

Part I: Agent-Based Modeling and the Smallpox Example

Josh Epstein describes agent-based computational modeling techniques for exploring complex problems in society, such as war, organizational conflict, and disease. Josh builds complex models that create artificial societies that engage independent individuals (agents) that interact with a predetermined environment, in ways that cast new light on human behavior. He uses a smallpox epidemic as an example of how new insights are derived from explicit modeling as opposed to “the models that experts carry around in their heads."